Snap topped Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom lines in the first quarter of 2019 — and the still-unprofitable company managed to show an uptick in Snapchat users for the first time in a year. Revenue for the quarter was $320 million, up 39% year over year, while it narrowed its net loss

Facebook vice president Fidji Simo told the audience of Variety’s Silicon Valleywood presented by PwC on Tuesday that the company was carefully evaluating how to increase the safety of its live streaming feature in the wake of the New Zealand massacre. “We know that we need to do more to protect people on live,” she said,

After testing them with “Game of Thrones” fans and a few dozen other Subreddits for the past couple of months, Reddit is now launching two new post types to its entire user base: Events will help communities with discussions about TV show episodes, awards shows, breaking news and more; Collections will help to curate posts,

As Apple’s recent star-studded event for its new TV streaming service demonstrated, the worlds of entertainment and technology are becoming increasingly intertwined — a convergence Variety will explore during its inaugural Silicon Valleywood Summit on April 23 in Menlo Park. Entertainment leaders will join tech giants on the latter industry’s home turf to discuss how

Netflix is going back to the debt markets — to fuel more content spending — announcing plans to issue $2 billion in unsecured bonds. The proposed offering would be the seventh time in four years that Netflix is raising $1 billion or more through debt, and would bring its long-term debt to around $12.3 billion

Content is king — but the queen for direct-to-consumer streaming services is overall user experience, according to a new study. It’s well understood that the price/value ratio for subscription VOD hinges on access to content, including exclusive originals and popular library titles. But just as important is an SVOD offering’s ease-of-use and other consumer-friendly features,

The Paramount+ subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) service is to begin operations in Latin America and Brazil from next month. The moves are made possible by deals with Claro Video and with Brazil’s NET. The South America expansion in in addition to the platform’s existing presence in the Nordic region and Central and Eastern Europe. The deal

CNN programming is coming to Pluto TV, Viacom’s free streaming TV service, on a dedicated channel launching for users in the U.S. Tuesday. To be clear, however, it’s not CNN’s live broadcast feed — that’s available only to pay-TV customers on traditional cable or satellite services, and via authenticated access on the web and mobile

Verizon has turned to Google for over-the-top TV: The telco will market and resell YouTube TV to wireless and Fios broadband customers nationwide — leading with 5G early adopters — under a pact with the internet giant. The companies didn’t announce YouTube TV pricing, availability or other details; a Verizon rep said only that the

Twitter turned in another quarter that topped Wall Street earnings estimates and grew its user base on both a daily and monthly basis sequentially — as the company touted success of efforts to thwart abuse on the platform. The social network’s Q1 revenue was $787 million, up 18% year-over-year, and net income was $190.8 million

Singapore’s state-backed Mediacorp has struck a trio of new content production deals. They span partnerships with new tech incubators and producers Wattpad and Vice Media, and a series production deal with Spackman Entertainment. Mediacorp says that the trio of moves reflect an initiative to broaden its content ecosystem, explore fresh ideas and new approaches to

Indian content producer Applause Entertainment will produce a local version of hit BBC crime drama “Luther.” With “Luther,” Applause will continue its business model of assuming the risk of producing shows, and later offering them to OTT platforms as finished works. Starring Idris Elba, “Luther” is now five seasons old. The Indian adaptation will be

The skinniest virtual pay-TV offering available is going by the wayside. Philo, the over-the-top TV company backed by four cable programmers, is eliminating its super-skinny bundle that offered more than 40 channels for just $16 per month for new customers. It’s more evidence that OTT players are being forced to adjust their pricing and packaging

April 22, 2019 10:12AM PT Samsung has officially delayed the launch of its much-anticipated foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, after multiple reviewers experienced issues with the device’s screen. The company said in a statement that it would announce a new release data for the device “in the coming weeks.” The Galaxy Fold had first been

The pace of cord cutting is continuing to accelerate this year, according to a new Convergence Research Group report, with 4.56 million TV households opting to ditch pay TV. By the end of the year, 34% of U.S. households won’t have a traditional TV subscription, according to the research company’s latest “Battle for the American

Disney will roll into the subscription VOD wars with a smaller content selection than rivals — with a strategy of playing to quality, not quantity. Disney+, the Mouse House’s new SVOD entry launching in the U.S. this November at $6.99 monthly, will cost nearly half of Netflix’s standard HD plan. But in its first year,

April 19, 2019 5:20PM PT SiriusXM wants to cater consumers without cars, or cars without compatible stereos, with a new $8 plan for mobile and in-home listening. Dubbed SiriusXM Essential, the plan offers access to 200+ channels featuring the network’s entire music programming, as well comedy, news and select sports channels. Consumers will be able

YouTube has turned to one of its homegrown stars — technology vlogger Marques Brownlee, aka “MKBHD” — for its newest original series. The video platform has greenlit series “Retro Tech” featuring Brownlee, in which he’ll unbox and review vintage technology products that have defined pop culture. The show, slated to debut in December 2019, follows

April 19, 2019 10:01AM PT Netflix is testing a button to play random episodes of select TV shows, the company confirmed Friday morning. “We are testing the ability for members to play a random episode from different TV series on the Android mobile app,” a Netflix spokesperson told Variety. “These tests typically vary in length

YouTube touted a record-breaking audience for its exclusive live-streaming of the first weekend of the 2019 Coachella, with views nearly doubling over last year. And the Google-owned video giant is hoping for another big turnout this weekend as it will deliver live coverage of the desert music fest’s Weekend 2 for the first time. Over

When news began to spread last week that Amazon Music’s long-anticipated free streaming tier was imminent, headlines emerged about its threat to Spotify and Apple Music, with some stories saying that Spotify’s stock price dropped in response to the news. But not only was today’s launch of the free tier basically a soft one —

April 18, 2019 12:00PM PT Amazon Music today basically soft-launched its free streaming tier, in which U.S. customers of its Alexa voice assistant will have access to top Amazon Music playlists and thousands of stations, at no cost. The limited access that the new free service provides — it’s only available through Alexa, and when

Shares of the social pinning service Pinterest closed at $24.45 — 28.6% above their IPO price — on the company’s first day at the New York Stock Exchange Thursday as investors were looking to get in on the latest tech listing. Pinterest’s shares opened at $23.75, 25% above the IPO pricing of $19 per share,

Netflix plans to open a new production and office facility in Manhattan — which will provide up to $100 million in investments to New York City and result in hundreds of new jobs, according to New York State Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Netflix’s new corporate offices in the Big Apple will take up 100,000 square

April 18, 2019 8:45AM PT Nashville city leaders have sided against the streaming services Amazon, Spotify, Google and SiriusXM/Pandora in the appeal of the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision that would give songwriters a pay raise. The Nashville Metro Council adopted the resolution as part of its consent agenda earlier this week, although the move is

Amazon and Google have finally made peace: The two companies have agreed to bring their video services to each other’s devices in the coming months. At that point, Fire TV users will be able to access the official YouTube app, and Chromecast and Android TV users will finally be able to watch Amazon Video. The

Verizon Media, the telco’s content subsidiary formerly known as Oath, has been busy building out its network of video production facilities around the world: In the first few months of this year, Verizon Media opened or upgraded studios in New York, London, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil and Australia. In addition, it also launched a

April 18, 2019 6:00AM PT Subscribers of DirecTV Now and AT&T’s U-verse TV no longer have access to the NFL Network — meaning they’ll miss the network’s coverage of the 2019 NFL draft next week. AT&T dropped NFL Network as the telco and the league continue to try to hammer out an agreement on the

Is there a “Netflix killer” looming out there that will give the No. 1 subscription-streaming leader a run for its money and throw a serious wrench into its growth trajectory? Maybe. But a more likely scenario is that new services from Disney, Apple, WarnerMedia and others will be a rising subscription VOD tide lifting Netflix’s

April 17, 2019 9:27AM PT Facebook just announced a major addition to the line-up for its Oculus Quest VR headset: Google is bringing its Tilt Brush virtual reality (VR) drawing app to the standalone headset, which is widely expected to become commercially available in the coming weeks. “When we learned that Oculus was building a